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Posted September 7, 2006 09:35 pm

Letters to the editor

Savannah Morning News

Trip Tollison.

When you examine the $800 million worth of projects contained in the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax/E-SPLOST package, you realize there are needs that should have been funded/constructed yesterday (i.e. school and public safety improvements) and needs that must be addressed in the future (i.e. new arena, neighborhood redevelopment).

We must be on parallel tracks since this vote will carry our county's capital upgrades until 2014. In order for us to maintain this approach without placing a tremendous fiscal burden on our residents, I encourage you to vote "yes" for both packages on Sept. 19 for three reasons:

The county is going to fund a $100-million, much-needed expansion at our detention facility and our police department is going to upgrade their equipment and build new precincts. The question is how do we want to pay for it - significantly higher property taxes, or utilizing our current sales tax? I believe no property owner of Chatham County wants a property tax increase.

The State of Georgia estimates that metropolitan counties/cities (i.e. Columbus, Valdosta, Macon) receive 33 percent of their sales taxes from visitors (i.e. workers, shoppers, diners who drive in from more rural areas). In Savannah, we have a bustling tourism economy that adds to the state average. In fact, Smith Travel Research shows us that 15 percent of our sales taxes alone are funded by overnight visitors/tourists. I argue that at least 48 percent of our sales taxes come from visitors to Chatham County, not 40 percent. Chatham County can save $320 to $380 million. The school system's E-SPLOST package alone is $360 million.

Since 1985, we have leveraged $500 million in state and federal funds because of our SPLOST commitments (i.e. Truman Parkway, Southwest Bypass). We will be able to bring in millions of added funds from Atlanta and Washington during our next SPLOST/E-SPLOST to complete our projects. With concrete climbing to $100 a yard, we will need all of the help we can get.

SPLOST/E-SPLOST is not a new concept to fund quality of life improvements. In fact, 97 percent of all Georgia counties already have an E-SPLOST and 92 percent of Georgia counties already have a SPLOST. Chatham County is the only metropolitan county in Georgia without an E-SPLOST. If rural counties like McIntosh County and Clinch County have caught on to this sales tax approach, then we can too.

TRIP TOLLISON

Vice President, Savannah Area Chamber of Commerce, Savannah

Letters to the editor must include the writer's name (no initials), a mailing address and daytime telephone number for verification purposes. We ask that letters be no longer than 200 words. All submissions are subject to editing. Full guidelines: www.savannahnow.com/CURRENT/OPEDindex.shtml.